2000 tourist Tourists spent $10.92 billion in Hawaii last year, 6.2 percent more than the $10.28 billion in visitor expenditures reported for 1999, according to an annual tourism report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
spending 2nd best
The $10.92 billion in visitor
spending is topped only in 1995By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comThe department said it was the second-highest spending year ever, topped only by $11.1 billion in 1995.
The figures support tourist-industry contentions that a big reason visitor statistics seem to be down in 2001 is that 2000 was such a good year. For example, there are widespread reports that Japanese tourists are changing their spending habits and the result is that Japanese spending is down this year. That is anecdotal, however, and last year at least, the Japanese led the way by spending an average of $235 per day per person, according to the survey.
That made the Japanese the biggest individual spenders, followed by visitors in the "other Asia" category at $195, Latin Americans at $180 a day, travelers from Oceania at $171 a day and Americans from the Eastern states at $170 a day. West Coast Americans, who make up Hawaii's biggest tourist market, spent an average of $144 per person per day last year, according to the report, which was issued yesterday.
While the per-person figures provide social and marketing information on spending habits, they are less important to economists than the total expenditure figures, which are affected by how many tourists come from each area and how long they stay.
U.S. West tourists topped the overall spending list last year with a total of $3.46 billion, DBEDT said. U.S. East travelers, a smaller but growing sector, spent just under $3 billion and total Japanese spending in the islands last year was $2.37 billion.
All the rest were smaller, with Canadians next in line at $452 million, followed by Europeans at $264 million and "other Asia" at $193 million.
In the total number of tourists coming to the islands, 2000 was a record with 6,948,595 arrivals, DBEDT said. That was a 3.1 percent increase from 6,741,037 in 1999, according to the final figures for the year.
June 2001 figures won't be out until late this month but through the first five months of this year the 2,809,856 arrivals total was 1.4 percent below the same time last year.
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism